Opuntia Stricta - Penbbs Ink No. 96

[visvamitra]

Penbbs is chinese fountain pen forum. It seems the guys are not only talking about pens but also mixing inks and the moment they've created approximnately 160 inks. Wow. I remember I've seem Lgsoltek review of their ink but I didn't follow the lead until recently a friend of mine gave me sample of the ink and asked to review it. The deal was simpple - I do my usual tests, tell him what I think about the ink and only after that he would tell me ink's name. I've tried sample in two pens - Faber-Castell Ondoro with fine nib and Kaweco Classic Sport with broad nib (although the pen is ugly it's almost ubreakable - I've written few hunderds reviews with it and flushed it with water probably more than one thousand times. Crazy.).

 

Anyway Opuntia Stricta has very nice color (Cyber6 - you around anywhere?) and really good writing proprieties. It doesn't feather even on Moleskine paper that - for me - is the worst representation of fountain pen unfriendly paper. It dries really fast (depending on the nib and paper combo between 3 - 10 seconds) and is water resistant to some extent. The color suits my taste. One disadvantage I've discovered in fine nib is quick drying out. When I left FC ondoro uncapped for 30 seconds the pen had some difficulty to start. When the pen is capped after use there's no issues with the flow once you uncap it and start writing after a day or so. The flow is good but not amazing, the lubrication could be better but I'm really impressed with this ink and I enjoy it.

 

If there's anyone here who participated in chinese pen forum who could shed some light on these inks I would be interested in learning more about them (who makes them, is it mass or artisanal production and so on). It seems they can be bought on Taobao.

 

Enough words. Now let's look at the images. On the other hand though I must confess I find it great to review unknown ink and having its name revealed only after the assessement is done. I bet this way some of popular inks wouldn't get so much recognition

 

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

 

Software ID

Tomoe River, Kaweco Classic Sport, B

Leuchtturm1917, Kaweco Classic Sport, B

Oxford, Kaweco Classic Sport, B

Rhodia, Faber-Castell Ondoro,F

Moleskine, Faber-Castell Ondoro,F

Water resistance

Comparison

[Cyber6]

I am here... I am here...

 

 

Love the color... and just ADORE your comparison list.. .. 90% of my lovelies are there... (Don't have DeA and this Penbbs)

 

 

 

C.

[lgsoltek]

I believe these inks are made by the creator of the fountain pen forum Penbbs. Either he mixes them himself or designs the colours and has someone mix them, I think it's most probably the latter case. They are released in series: some 10-15 new inks are released from time to time. They've got 12 series and 160 colours now, most of them still in production. They are more like a mass production rather than artisanal creation.

Some of the earliest releases seemed to have trouble with flow, mould, clogging but the newer ones seem to be fine. Many of the inks have a certain theme like Classic Chinese colours, Animals, plants, world wars, well known persons, etc.

 

Back to the review itself it's a great colour and a great review as usual. It certainly is more interesting than the official swab which usually doesn't flatter their ink much.

 

I like it when you say if we hadn't know the brand beforehand some of popular inks wouldn't get so much recognition. One example that pops into mind is the popular Iroshizuku Kon-peki which IMO is a nice colour it's true, but really just merely an ordinary light blue that doesn't feel so special among so many other blue inks.

[oceanlover4evr]

Oohh this is a really nice color. I wonder how it compares to Chesterfield's Antique Shamrock...

[Barkingpig]

Thank you for another wonderful review of a beautiful ink.

[DrDebG]

Great review! Are these sold retail? Probably only in China.

[visvamitra]

@Lgsoltek - thank you for the insight. I do agree with you on Kon-Peki. I also stronly believe that new Graf von Faber-Castell inks and some om Montblan's LE inks wouldn't receive so much positive feedback if the reviewers didn't know their name beforehand

 

PS - it seems some of Penbbs inks label can be somewhat political (?) - I've seen one on Taobao, kind of black with greenish undertones / particles (I couldn't say based on the swab) called Burning of the White House.

Edited April 12, 2016 by visvamitra

[lgsoltek]

@Lgsoltek - thank you for the insight. I do agree with you on Kon-Peki. I also stronly believe that new Graf von Faber-Castell inks and some om Montblan's LE inks wouldn't receive so much positive feedback if the reviewers didn't know their name beforehand

 

PS - it seems some of Penbbs inks label can be somewhat political (?) - I've seen one on Taobao, kind of black with greenish undertones / particles (I couldn't say based on the swab) called Burning of the White House.

That one is a black ink with golden particles I believe. On the label it says The Burning of White House 1814, which seems to be historical event. I didn't know about this history though.

[fountainpagan]

Military speaking, the burning of the White House (and all the official buildings) in 1814, was a minor event.

Politically speaking, it had a major importance.

 

It was the first, and sole, time the capital had been taken by the enemy (the british), and by burning the White House, they wanted to send two messages:

The first one, moral: the revenge for the destruction, by the americains of York, Haut Canada's capital, which very much humiliated the british government.

The second one was a political one. Because the negotiations, in Brussels, were approaching, and the eventuality of peace forseen, the british wanted to send a clear message, in case the americains refused peace: the war was to be complete, and of utmost destruction.

 

Very beautiful green.

Thank you for the review.

 

Edit: to add: "all the official buildings"

[Tas]

The green fans will be green with envy. Lovely review as always.

Thank you.

[visvamitra]

@fountainpagan - thank you for an interesting insight.

[lapis]

Beautiful green. Nice depth. Wouldn't mind them being available to a lot of us!

 

Mike

[fountainpagan]

@fountainpagan - thank you for an interesting insight.

You are welcome.

 

@Tas - I am indeed green.

[jmccarty3]

Beautiful! The Vannesses and the Andersons need to know about this.

[jmccarty3]

I discovered a buying agent for Taobao products called OfferAny:

 

http://www.offerany.com/p-528608324395.html

 

Does anyone have any experience with them?

 

I placed a small order for three of the inks to see how they do.

[lgsoltek]

I discovered a buying agent for Taobao products called OfferAny:

 

http://www.offerany.com/p-528608324395.html

 

Does anyone have any experience with them?

 

I placed a small order for three of the inks to see how they do.

 

 

Don't get #81 Crossota Millsae. The colour is pretty but it feathers horribly and stains your pen.

[fountainpagan]

I discovered a buying agent for Taobao products called OfferAny:

 

http://www.offerany.com/p-528608324395.html

 

Does anyone have any experience with them?

 

I placed a small order for three of the inks to see how they do.

 

jmccarty3, all I get from the link is this:

 

HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found

product info error

 

Could you please check what is the problem, if possible?

Thank you in advance.

[jmccarty3]

I had a great deal of trouble getting pages from www.offerany.com to load, but ultimately was able to place an order. Might be better to try to load their home page and then search for the penbbs inks.

 

I also found another buying service called uuorder.com that offers a different set of the penbbs inks. This one is more complicated to deal with, but I finally was able to request a PayPal invoice, which I paid just a few minutes ago. I don't trust sending credit card information to a Chinese web site. They did offer the option of paying by Western Union, but that's another can of worms, and I never was able to get it to work.

[Gloucesterman]

Thanks for the review. I really like the color too.

 

Think I will wait and see what the experiences are with the seller. Also, want to find out how much the shipping will be. Really don't want to pay lots for s&h.

[jmccarty3]

Re: shipping: As my Jewish Presbyterian mother would have said, "I've seen worse." I ordered three inks from each web site. On uuorder.com, it worked out to $21.98 per bottle, shipped to the US by EMS. On OderAny.com it was only $8.82 per bottle with "standard shipping," whatever that might be. It will be interesting to see what arrives and when.